By writing events and sensations she knew well, Sylvia Plath transformed her depressive experiences and physical actions into language through the written word. Even at this level, a parallel exists between the author and her protagonist. Esther experiences major depression throughout the novel, thrusting her body into a disabled state affecting all characteristics of her personhood, even her thought processes. Her thinking becomes fragmented and her writing disintegrates into a disjointed state. Because thought derives from the external senses as well as the brain, Esther’s communication does not function on any physical or mental level. This depression eventually leads to Esther’s shock treatments, debilitating her further. When Esther opens her mouth to ask her doctor a question, “no words came out”. She fails to verbalize her nervousness even before her body…show more content… Virtually incapable of action, she has become a helpless object. The piece of stiff paper or parchment, to which she feels a resemblance, becomes blank, firm, and mute, such as a decaying corpse. In addition, the electric current of her treatments represents her loss of the ability to remember or focus. 215 After her suicide attempt, she realizes she represents, not writing on a piece of paper, but the subtext within a narrative. She perceived herself as something withheld from the page rather than written on it. Overdosed, she loses contact with her own body. Removed from her environment, she dwells in a strange gap, via the underground chamber. She exists within the nuances of language, the meaning beneath the words, the things unspoken, difficult to comprehend, sometimes violent. The body she inhabits results from self imposed violence through her attempted suicide. The argument retains validity that Esther’s final question in The Bell Jar concerns the exact function of language. This question about meaning in relation to the body never receives a true answer throughout
